Hacking Team allegedly sold spying tools to Malaysia

The Malaysian Prime Minister's Office and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission have allegedly bought spying tools from Italian-based security firm, Hacking Team, and now the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is looking into the matter, media have reported on Tuesday.

The information is part of a leak which occurred after Hacking Team got hacked, and more than 400 GB of its data posted online.

The hackers also compromised Hacking Team’s Twitter account which they used to publish some of the information.

According to the data, the Prime Minister’s Office still has an active account, while the Anti-Corruption Commissions’ account expired in January last year. Malaysian Intelligence is also listed as active since December 2014, The Star wrote in a report.

Yesterday it was said that Hacking Team was selling its cyber weapons to Sudan and was stonewalling a UN investigation into their business.

The company is listed by Reporters without Borders on its Enemies of the Internet index for its alleged sale of cybertools to repressive regimes which are known for illegally monitoring activists.

Hacking Team has categorically denied these charges and claimed they have never done business with Sudan, however it still hasn’t said anything about Malaysia.

One of the tools Hacking Team makes is called Da Vinci – a remote control system which allows a person to capture other people’s data, including e-mail messages, passwords, instant messaging chats and even Skype calls.

It can also activate both the infected machine’s webcam and the microphone to record the user’s activity.